QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Public Services and Procurement
National Shipbuilding Strategy
October 18, 2023
Welcome to the Senate, minister. In April 2023, the injustice done to workers in the Quebec City area was redressed when the government announced that Davie would be added to the National Shipbuilding Strategy.
Of the $840 million announced to modernize the Davie shipyard, $519.2 million came from the Government of Quebec and $320 million came directly from Davie itself. Ottawa did not contribute a single penny. A spokesperson for Public Services and Procurement Canada was quoted in Le Journal de Montréal as saying:
. . . all of the Government of Canada’s strategic partners in the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS) must self-finance the infrastructure investments required to establish the capacity to build the ships included in their work package.
However, on August 9, the government announced that it would be giving Irving Shipbuilding Inc. $463 million to expand and modify its shipyard.
The fact that this question comes from you is very significant, since you, along with many others, worked on getting Davie added to the National Shipbuilding Strategy. Many people know that and are grateful to you.
That being said, over the next few years, a major national maritime hub will be established in the Quebec City area. This hub will have a considerable impact from both a technological and a purely industrial standpoint. It will change the lives of tens of thousands of workers and give contracts to about 1,300 service providers. We know that similar shipbuilders, such as Irving and Seaspan, faced some issues in the early 2010s. Every one of them, including Davie, has had to pay for their technology and production upgrades themselves. That’s what happened in the other provinces, with support from the provincial governments of Nova Scotia and British Columbia. As you pointed out, that’s what happened in Quebec in the spring. The assistance provided to Irving Shipbuilding a few months ago was, as you and we both noted, targeted funding to build combat ships in a way that wasn’t foreseen in the early 2010s. It’s a necessary improvement to reduce costs and delays for the incredibly difficult construction of those 15 combat ships.
Thank you.
All things considered, it’s hard to argue that there’s a level playing field for Davie workers, given that Davie itself is paying for its modernization with no help from Ottawa and that a lot of money went to Irving Shipbuilding.
We’re talking about two different things. One is upgrading and the other is support that had to be provided because National Defence’s requirements changed between the early 2010s and now. Davie’s upgrades, like those of the other two shipyards, were paid for independently by the shipbuilders themselves in every case, with support from the three provincial governments. That support is necessary because National Defence changed its parameters in recent years, and the goal of that funding is to ensure the ships can be built quickly and efficiently.
